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11 May 2006 Of waterway magazine websites
Canal and Riverboat (sorry, Canals and Rivers) also launched a new site about a month ago. It's very similar to CB's, even down to the blue heading and the top navbar. And then there's Towpath Talk, the curious new three-weekly canal newspaper which also has its own site, bravely/foolhardily including a discussion forum. So which waterway websites do you read regularly? Obviously, for me, the slightest doings of any of the other waterway magazines are of great interest. But I can't see myself returning to any of these three sites regularly. None of them say anything new. None of them are particularly usable. None of them, in fact, are a credit to the generally very good magazines which have spawned them. Compare and contrast with the best of the existing waterway websites. It's not too difficult to identify them: Pennine Waterways, Jim Shead's site, Waterscape, Granny Buttons, and Narrowboatworld. None of them are perfect. But the first three win out by means of their incredibly comprehensive content; the latter two by their regular updates, even if they do get me shouting at my monitor at times. As it stands, the waterway magazine websites are just adjuncts to the printed magazines, rather than destinations in themselves. Maybe that's intentional, but given the effort that's clearly gone into these new sites, I'm not sure where the return will be. No-one will be too taken aback to learn that we're planning a website for Waterways World. I also doubt whether anyone will be surprised to learn that it'll include some mapping components and some use of Flash. I'm looking forward to announcing some very funky stuff in the next few months. Comments | |
Canal Boat launched 